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“Baahubali” part I was a movie that I had watched in 2015 in a city in Eastern UP. I had landed up there while I was transferred from my previous place of posting in Chattisgarh and I was awaiting my next posting.

The people of that town were quite laid back and they took nearly two weeks to get my posting order issued. That gave me enough time to watch a few movies, something I rarely do. In fact, I watched “Baahubali” part I twice !
At that time, I knew nothing about this movie or its makers. Not that it mattered. The movie was made at such a grand scale, with impressive sets, story telling captivating. Most of us are used to watching movies after finding out who is the hero. But here the presentation and the packaging, which is of epic proportions was the star attraction. The actors were new for most audience, but it did not matter. People thronged movie halls, were enthralled and they quickly turned fans of the actors that they saw.

Forget Indians, even foreign audience gasped at the movie.

When a movie becomes successful, its sequel is made, mostly as a knee jerk reaction, to try and capitalise on the success of the original movie. Here it was different. It was decided right from the beginning that this movie was to be made in two parts, so the decision of coming up with part 2 was not a decision taken with the benefit of hindsight, rather it was already in the cards.

The first part had ended in a very critical juncture, with the question “Katappa ne Baahubali ko kyon maara ?” uppermost in everyone’s mind. This question intrigued people all over the world, and it became clear that anyone who had watched part I and was impressed with it (in other words everyone) was bound to watch part II whenever it was released.

The movie was going to be released worldwide on 28 april 2017. After I reported to the above mentioned eastern UP town, I was posted in a western UP town, known among HFM lovers for a few songs dealing with “jhumka”. As things stood, I lived in UP, my wife lived in MP, and our daughter lived in Maharashtra. It so happened that the two of them had plans to come to me and spend a couple of weeks with me. The daughter joined me in the first week of May 2017. Wife was to join a few days later. She expressly instructed us to wait for her arrival. Do not watch the movie in my absence. Wait for me to arrive. In any case, we always wanted to watch this movie together.

So we watched this movie in an afternoon show. Based on my experience with part I, I was sure that the movie would exceed my expectations, even though I already had high expectations with it that I refused to lower. And so it proved.

I knew what to expect in the movie and it fully delivered that, and some more. I was highly pleased with the experience. In addition, I felt highly satisfied and proud that Indians too can produce a movie like this. Watching a full movie without feeling bored in a tall order for me these days. Here is a movie that I could watch fully without for a moment feeling bored or thinking that I was being taken for a ride.

Interestingly enough, this was the first time when I watched a movie in a movie hall with my wife and daughter. Before this it was either with one or the other, but never with both together. And it took a movie like “Baahubali” part II to bring us together to a movie hall !

The movie has spectacular special effects and grand sets as in the first part. In reality, much of part II happens before the tale of part I, so in reality part II (much of it) is the forerunner of part I, till the juncture where we come to know “Kattappa ne Baabubali ko kyon maara”. It is only after this revelation in the second half of part II that the movie chronologically becomes the final part of the movie including the climax.

In the first part, the tribal boy Shivudu (Prabhas) discovers that he is, in fact, Mahendra Baahubali, son of the late great Amarendra Baahubali (also Prabhas) who was robbed of the throne of Mahishmati kingdom by the machinations of his cruel cousin Bhallaladeva (Rana Daggubati) and uncle Bijjaladeva (Nassar).
In part II, Mahendra hears the story of why and how that happened before setting off to avenge the deaths of his father and foster grandmother Sivagami (Ramya Krishna) and to free his mother Devasena (Anushka Shetty) from imprisonment in Mahishmati.

The story narration captivates the audience from the beginning to the end. Anushka Shetty, who was seen as a prisoner in part I plays a pretty princess who is adept in warfare. How Babubali (Prabhas ) – masquerading as a country bumpkin and Katappa (Satyaraj) come in contact with her and how things unfold has been presented in a manner than keeps the audience thoroughly amused and entertained.

Troubles begin to brew as well, as is bound to happen, with Bhallal Dev (Rana Daggubati) and Bijjal Dev (Nasser) always conspiring against Bahubali and always succeeding in poisoning the mind of Rajmata Sivagami (Ramya Krishna) against Bahubali and making her pass orders that are to the detriment of Bahubali.

This is a movie which is best enjoyed when you give the thinking part of your brain a rest and use the part responsible for savouring things. The whole movie is an experience that needs to be savoured in a movie hall in the company of lots of other people who are just as enthralled as you are. People who dismiss this movie as just the usual battle between good and the bad, as a tale of palace conspiracies, or as an “Amar Chitra Katha” like tale miss lots and lots of exciting stuff that this movie possesses and inability to detect them is entirely their loss.

Devsena (Anushka Shetty) to my mind is the star attraction of this part. In the first part of the franchise, Anushka played a prisoner held captive by the evil Bhallala Deva (Rana Daggubati) and Bijjal Dev (Nasser). Her belief that her son Mahendra Bahubali would one day rescue her keeps her going.

In the sequel, the audience go back in time and watch the young Devsena. And what a revelation she is !

Overall, it is a spectacular movie, the likes of which was never seen before in an Indian movie. And interestingly, this movie is not a Bollywood movie (as the say) produced in Mumbai, but a Telugu movie produced in Hyderabad. So, this movie breaks several glass ceilings. One is that the grandest Indian movies must come from Bollywood. And second, that Indian movies can only be India class , and not world class. The special effects, the sets, the grandeur of this movie is absolutely world class. It is a movie made on epic proportions. It is a movie that will make Indians proud. It certainly made me feel proud that Indians can make a movie like this.

The movie is making waves all around the world. The movie is such that it is bound to be a hit with people all around the world, no matter which part of the world they come from.

This movie proves that content and presentation, allied with attention to details and insistence on highest quality can yield rich dividends. More than the actors, I think that S S Rajamouli, has emerged as a great source of inspiration to Indians, as he has demonstrated to us that we Indians have it in us to make world class products.

The movie, originally made in Telugu, was dubbed in several other languages viz Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi etc. In the past, I have seen so many non Hindi movies fall flat among Hindi movie goers due to aweful Hindi dubbing. It must be said that the Hindi dubbing of this movie in outstanding. It almost makes you feel that you are watching an original Hindi movie, rather than a dubbed one. And nearly half the box office collection of the movie is for the Hindi version. One thing that pleased me a lot was that the Hindi used in the movie was the “proper” language, pleasing to the ears, rather than the kind of language that one gets to hear in most Hindi movies these days.

The Hindi dubbing artists who have given their voices to various actors deserve great credit for bringing the characters alive for Hindi audience. Sharad Kelkar has lent his voice to Bahubali. He watched this movie in a theatre. When the dialogue comes- ‘Jab tak tum mere saath ho mujhe maarne wala paida nahin hua, mama (As long as you are by my side, the man who can kill me is not yet born, uncle),’ people who knew his contribution in the movie hugged him.

Here are the various artists and the actors they lent their voices to in the movie:

Hindi dubbing artists

S N

Dubbing artist

Character (Actor)

1

Sharad Kelkar

Amarendra Bahubali, Mahendra Bahubali (Prabhas)

2

Manoj Pandey

Bhallal Dev (Rana Daggubatti )

3

Samay Thakkar

Katappa (Satyaraj)

4

Deepak Sinha

Bijjal Dev (Nasser)

5

Neeti Mathur

Devsena(Anushka Shetty)

6

Mausam

Rajmata Shivgami(Ramya Krishna)

7

Manisha

Mahendra Bahubali’s foster mother(Rohini)

Tamanna, playing Avantika is fluent in Hindi and so she did not need any other artists to dub for her in Hindi.

Overall, this movie is easily the biggest blockbuster movie to have come out of India till now.

The music of the movie, especially the background music, is magnificent and it will appeal even to foreigners.

Special mention must be made of S S Rajamouli, the director of the movie and the brain behind it. In the process of making the two part movies, he broke many many glass ceilings that Indian movie makers had mentally imposed upon themselves. As a movie that cut no corners and spared no resources, I must say that S S Rajamauli should serve as an inspiration to Indians to stop thinking small and to begin to think big. I am personally hugely impressed with him. After I watched part I, I knew it in my mind that I could whole heartedly repose my trust on his ability to come up with an even better encore in part II. And I was not disappointed.

Here is a song from Bahubali 2- the conclusion. This song is sung by Kailash Kher and chorus. Manoj Muntasir is the lyricist. Music is composed by M M Kreem.

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5 Responses to "Jai jaikaara jai jaikaara"

Atulji,
Your introduction and that followed by the video! OMG raised goose-bumps.As otherwise I am not interested in watching movies rather than hearing the music, Bahubali beginning now I shall watch on YT (Full movie is available.) ThanQ very much for this thrilling experience you gave me.

I also caught the movie on Tuesday Night and loved it. It is very well made, very crisply edited and dubbing/background music is great. The movie is Indian to the core and proves that one need not have a western inclination or locales to make it great. Thinking caps though best left at home as some things will be partially not be digestible. One must go to the movie to enjoy the larger than life screenplay, costumes, graphics, acting and then one can return hugely satisfied. It won’t change your life but it will certainly charge your evening up!
Songs are fit well in the context of the situations of the movie though I doubt their shelf life in the long run. This one was good as was the kanha song.
A must enjoy movie in the cinema for which movies are made for. Hope this movie has reminded many of that fact and will savour it there leaving behind the illegal downloads. It should also serve as a master class to other film makers on how to make a movie. If movies are good, one doesn’t need a well known cast or the need to go to promote movie on reality/comedy shows!

I watched Bahubali 2 first, and caught up with 1 later. I was also amazed by the super showmanship of the movie. It did have a bit of ‘Chandamama’, ‘Amar Chitra Katha’ feel, but I do not say that in a dissing voice. In fact, I love it all the more for it.

I am particularly grateful that you drew notice to the wonderful work done by the dubbing artists. It is now that I realise how well the voice artists brought out the ethos of the character. Indeed the best dubbing work after the great job done in Gandhi, with Pankaj Kapur himself dubbing for Gandhi.

In the western movies, big stars routinely dub for animated films. We must remember what a great job Nana Patekar did as Share Khan in Jungle Book.

The work of such artists goes unnoticed but they add a lot to a project.

In my house, I am the only person who has not watched ‘Bahubali-1 and 2 in any format. One of the reasons I have been avoiding watching dubbed films the poor quality of dubbing which I cannot withstand. Now that you have ‘certified’ the film to be excellently dubbed in Hindi, I am now inclined to watch the movie.

By the way, I had not watched ‘Sholay’ (1975) until its rerun in a local theatre sometime in early 90s. And believe me, I found the film technically quite advanced even in early 90s.